Galaxy Microsystems, a leading manufacturer of high performance graphics cards, announced today the GeForce GTX 780 GC. The GC edition is the latest example of engineering excellence from Galaxy, designed for even greater performance and custom cooled with Galaxy’s all new premium, high efficiency dual fan cooler.

The new twin fan cooling system contains numerous upgrades. EBR Fluid bearings guarantee longer fan life with silent operation, and hybrid Copper and Aluminum cooling fins maximize heat transfer from the card’s overclocked GPU. The card itself features a custom PCB with high grade components and an impressive 1019Mhz boost clock for enhanced gaming performance right out of the box. Enthusiasts will want to take full advantage of the card’s superior cooling and improved overclock potential using the included Xtreme Tuner Plus overclocking and monitoring software.

The GTX 780 GC edition is built with 3GB of GDDR5 and supports NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0, Adaptive Vsync, PhysX, 3D Vision, and Surround. The already quiet twin fan cooler also benefits from an upgraded fan control algorithm which stabilizes speeds, minimizing distractions from fans ramping up and down during gameplay.

The Galaxy GTX 780 GC 3GB is available now at leading retailers and etailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, NCIX, Newegg, and TigerDirect. Customers can also buy direct from Galaxy’s online store at http://store.galaxytechus.com.

Returning home on Monday, I was greeted by several (slightly wet) boxes from Asus. Happily, the rainstorm that made these boxes a bit damp did not last long, and the wetness was only superficial. The contents were perfectly fine. I was pleased by this, but not particularly pleased with FedEx for leaving them in a spot where they got wet. All complaints aside, I was obviously ecstatic to get the boxes.

Quite the lineup. The new packaging is sharp looking and clearly defines the contents.

Inside these boxes are some of the latest and greatest video cards from Asus. Having just finished up a budget roundup, I had the bandwidth available to tackle a much more complex task. Asus sent four cards for our testing procedures, and I intend to go over them with a fine toothed comb.

The smallest of the bunch is the new GTX 670 DC Mini. Asus did some serious custom work to not only get the card as small as it is, but also to redesign the power delivery system so that the chip only requires a single 8 pin PCI-E power connection. Most GTX 670 boards require 2 x 6 pin connectors which would come out to be around 225 watts delivered, but a single 8 pin would give around 175 watts total. This is skirting the edge of the official draw for the GTX 670, but with the GK104 chip being as mature as it is, there is some extra leeway involved. The cooler is quite compact and apparently pretty quiet. This is aimed at the small form factor crowd who do not want/need a overly large card, but still require a lot of performance. While the GTX 700 series is now hitting the streets, there is still a market for this particular card. Oh, and it is also overclocked for good measure!

We see a nice progression from big to little. It is amazing how small the GTX 670 DC Mini is compared to the rest, and it will be quite interesting to see how it compares to the GTX 760 in testing.

The second card is the newly released GTX 760 DCII OC. This is again based on the tried and true GK104 chip, but has several units disabled. It has 1152 CUDA cores, but retains the same number of ROPS as the fully enabled chips. It also features the full 256 bit memory bus running at 6 Gbps. It has plenty of bandwidth to provide the card in most circumstances considering the amount of functional units enabled. The cooler is one of the new DirectCU II designs and is a nice upgrade in both functionality and looks from the previous DCII models. It is a smaller card than one would expect, but that comes from the need to simplify the card and not overbuild it like the higher priced 770 and 780 cards. As I have mentioned before, I really like the budget and midrange cards. This should be a really fascinating card to test.

The next card is a bit of an odd bird. The GTX 770 DCII OC is essentially a slightly higher clocked GTX 680 from yesteryear. One of the big changes is that this particular model foregoes the triple slot cooler of the previous generation and implements a dual slot cooler that is quite heavy and with a good fin density. It features six pin and eight pin power connections so it has some legs for overclocking. The back plate is there for stability and protection, and it gives the board a very nice, solid feel. Asus added two LEDs by the power connections which show if the card is receiving power or not. This is nice, as the fans on this card are very silent in most situations. Nobody wants to unplug a video card that is powered up. It retains the previous generation DCII styling, but the cooler performance is certainly nothing to sneeze at. It also is less expensive than the previous GTX 680, but is faster.

All of the cards sport dual DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI outputs. Both DVI ports are dual-link, but only one is DVI-I which can also output a VGA signal with the proper adapter.

Finally we have the big daddy of the GTX 700 series. The 780 DCII OC is pretty much a monster card that exceeds every other offering out there, except the $1K GTX Titan. It is a slightly cut down chip as compared to the mighty Titan, but it still packs in 2304 CUDA cores. It retains the 384 bit memory bus and runs at a brisk 6 Gbps for a whopping 288.4 GB/sec of bandwidth. The core is overclocked to a base of 889 MHz and boosts up to 941 MHz. The cooler on this is massive. It features a brand new fan design for the front unit which apparently can really move the air and do so quietly. Oddly enough, this fan made its debut appearance on the aforementioned GTX 670 DC Mini. The PCB on the GTX 780 DCII OC is non-reference. It features a new power delivery system that should keep this board humming when overclocked. Asus has done their usual magic in pairing the design with high quality components which should ensure a long lifespan for this pretty expensive board.

I do like the protective plates on the backs of the bigger cards, but the rear portion of the two smaller cards are interesting as well. We will delve more into the "Direct Power" functionality in the full review.

I am already well into testing these units and hope to have the full roundup late next week. These are really neat cards and any consumer looking to buy a new one should certainly check out the review once it is complete.

Asus has gone past the "Superpipe" stage with the GTX 780. That is a 10 mm heatpipe we are seeing. All of the DCII series coolers are robust, and even the DC Mini can dissipate a lot of heat.

AIB partner Palit has announced a speedy GTX 780 of its own with the GTX 780 Super JetStream graphics card. This card has a triple fan cooler and is one of the fastest GTX 780’s announced so far (matching the GPU clocks of the Gainward Phantom GLH).

The differentiating factor here beyond the factory overclock is Palit’s own JetStream cooler. This cooler, well, cools an aluminum fin stack (copper base) using two 80mm fans on either side of a single center-mounted 90mm fan. The fans sit beneath a black and gold colored shroud. According to Palit, the JetStream cooler is rated at 6 dB quieter and 10-degrees Celsius cooler than the reference NVIDIA cooler.

The rumored GTX 760 graphics cards are still not available, but graphics enthusiasts do have a number of new factory overclocked GTX 780 cards with custom coolers to drool over. One such new GTX 780 card is the so-called GTX 780 Phantom GLH card from Gainward. This card is 2.5 slot monster that pairs the GTX 780 GPU with custom power phases and a giant block of aluminum and copper to support a healthy factory overclock.

This new Gainward Phanton GLH card pushes the GTX 780 GPU farther than the company's own GTX 780 Phantom. It has a base clock of 980MHz, boost clock of 1033 MHz, and slightly overclocked 6200 MHz memory. Of course, being based on NVIDIA's GTX 780 chip, the Phanton GLH features 2,304 CUDA cores and 192 Texture Units within 12 SMX units. The Phantom GLH's 3GB of overclocked GDDR5 memory affords the card 297.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Gainward claims that the new card is up to 19% faster than NVIDIA's reference GTX 780 graphics card.

To put that in perspective, the Gainward GTX 780 Phantom (non-GLH) is clocked at 902 MHz base and 954 MHz boost. Further, NVIDIA"s stock GTX 780 is has GPU clockspeeds of 863 MHz base, 900 MHz boost, and 6008 MHz for the memory. In other words, it is an impressive factory overclock, and I'm interested to see how much headroom is left for enthusiasts to push the chip further with the included cooler.

Other features of the upcoming Gainward GTX 780 Phanton GLH include an 8-phase PWM with DrMOS technology, a large aluminum fin stack with removable fans that is connected to a copper GPU block via five 8mm heatpipes, and an EXPERTmode option in the company's overclocking utility. Video outputs are the same as the reference design, with two DVI, one DisplayPort, and one HDMI port.

There is no word on pricing or when (and where) it will be available, but expect this beastly card to come at a premium. Although, as one of the fastest factory overclocked GTX 780 cards (soon to be) available, it may be worth it!

While NVIDIA restricted partners from going with aftermarket coolers on the company's GTX TITAN graphics card, the recently released NVIDIA GTX 780 does not appear to have the same limits placed upon it. As such, many manufacturers will be releasing GTX 780 graphics cards with custom coolers. One such design that caught my attention was the Hydro Copper full cover waterblock from EVGA.

This new cooler will be used on at least two upcoming EVGA graphics cards, the GTX 780 and GTX 780 Classified. EVGA has not yet announced clockspeeds or pricing for the Classified edition, but the GTX 780 Hydro Copper will be a GTX 780 GPU clocked at 980 MHz base and 1033 MHz boost. The 3GB of GDDR5 memory is stock clocked at 6008 MHz, however. It uses a single 8-pin and a single 6-pin PCI-E power connector. This card is selling for around $799 at retailers such as Newegg.

The GTX 780 Classified Hydro Copper will have a factory overclocked GTX 780 GPU and 3GB of GDDR5 memory at 6008 MHz, but beyond that details are scarce. The 8+8-pin PCI-E power connectors do suggest a healthy overclock (or at least that users will be able to push the cards after they get them).

Both the GTX 780 and GTX 780 Classified Hydro Copper graphics cards feature two DL-DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort video outputs.

The Hydro Copper cooler itself is the really interesting bit about these cards though. It is a single slot, full cover waterblock that will cool the entire graphics card (GPU, VRM, Memory, ect). It has two inlet/outlet ports that can be swapped around to accommodate SLI setups or other custom water tube routing. A configurable LED-backlit EVGA logo adorns the side of the card and can be controlled in software. A 0.25 x 0.35 pin matrix is used in the portion of the block above the GPU to increase the surface area and aid in cooling. Unfortunately, while the card and cooler are single slot, you will actually need two case PCI expansion slots due to the two DL-DVI connectors.

It looks like a neat card, and it should perform well. I'm looking forward to seeing reviews of the card and how the cooler holds up to overclocking. Buying an overclocked card with a pre-installed waterblock is not for everyone but having a water cooled GPU with a warranty will be worth it more than pairing a stock card with a custom block.

With 768 more CUDA Cores than the 680 but 384 less than the TITAN the 780 offers improvements over the previous generation and will be available for about $350 less than the TITAN. As you can see in [H]ard|OCP's testing it does outperform the 680 and 7970 but not by a huge margin which hurts the price to performance ratio and makes it more attractive for 680 owners to pick up a second card for SLI. AMD owners with previous generation cards and deep pockets might be tempted to pick up a pair of these cards as they show very good frame rating results in Ryan's review.

"NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 780 video card has finally been unveiled. We review the GTX 780 with real world gaming with the most intense 3D games, including Metro: Last Light. If the GTX TITAN had you excited but was a bit out of your price range, the GTX 780 should hold your excitement while being a lot less expensive."

GK110 Gets a Lower Price Point

When NVIDIA released the GeForce GTX Titan in February there was a kind of collective gasp across the enthusiast base. Half of that intake of air was from people amazed at the performance they were seeing on a single GPU graphics cards powered by the GK110 chip. The other half was from people aghast of the $1000 price point that NVIDIA launched it at. The GTX Titan was the fastest single GPU card in the world, without any debate, but with it came a cost we hadn't seen in some time. Even with the debate between it, the GTX 690 and the HD 7990, the Titan was likely my favorite GPU, cost no concerns.

Today we see the extension of the GK110, by cutting it back some, and releasing a new card. The GeForce GTX 780 3GB is based on the same chip as the GTX Titan but with additional SMX units disabled, a lower CUDA core count and less memory. But as you'll soon see, the performance delta between it and the GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970 GHz is pretty impressive. The $650 price tag though - maybe not.

We held a live stream the day this review launched at http://pcper.com/live. You can see the replay that goes over our benchmark results and thoughts on the GTX 780 below.

The GeForce GTX 780 - A Cut Down GK110

As I mentioned above, the GTX 780 is a pared-down GK110 GPU and for more information on that particular architecture change, you should really take a look at my original GTX Titan launch article from February. There is a lot more that is different on this part compared to GK104 than simple shader counts, but for gamers most of the focus will rest there.

The chip itself is a 7.1 billion mega-ton beast though a card with the GTX 780 label is actually utilizing much fewer than that. Below you will find a couple of block diagrams that represent the reduced functionality of the GTX 780 versus the GTX Titan: